Daily Times

The major threat to the
quality of education comes from its unchecked commercialisation, be it at the national or international level. Scotland, which recently aspired for independence from the UK through a referendum, is not immune to this evil, especially when it comes to offering higher education to overseas students, as depicted by the report of the Post Study Work Working Group (PSWWG) published in March 2015 by the Scottish government.
In Annex B on page 49 of the report, the comment of a respondent featured in the consultative survey research (leading to the report) has been mentioned and it is reproduced here: “My views are shaped by my experience of reviewing work that is almost always very poor quality (total rework required) by foreign ex-students for client companies and their contractors. The way the system seems to work generally in Scotland is that the universities regard overseas postgrads as an easy income stream; they deliver poor courses and the students learn inadequately but the universities are required to award degrees otherwise their income stream will dry up, the individuals get hired on the basis of (substandard) qualifications, they are inadequately supervised by their employer and the employer is reluctant to dismiss them for incompetence (including concerns about racial discrimination), and the problem/waste gets perpetuated. That is why I am against reintroduction of such visas unless the whole process is reengineered, from the university cash cow to national benefit.”
Although the name of the participant who made this valuable comment is not mentioned in the report to honour the principles of the ethics of research (and the name lies with those who conducted the research), the commentator must be at a high post from the education or business sector, as the representative of 13 various organisations and bodies (such as Institute of Directors, Scottish Council for Development and Industry, Scottish Development International, Skills Development d, Scottish Enterprise, Colleges Scotland, National Union of Students, Universities Scotland, UK Council for International Students Affairs, etc.), both from the education and business sectors, took part in the research. The Scottish government had earlier offered a post-study work route to overseas students as a pilot scheme from 2004 to 2011. This time, the PSWWG was set up by Scottish ministers in 2014 to conduct a study for the feasibility of the reintroduction of the post-study work route scheme in Scotland.
In fact, the comment (as mentioned above) is a scathing charge sheet against the Scottish government, which is now again hell bent on reintroducing the post-study work route in Scotland. Secondly, the comment portrays a vivid picture of the dismal performance of the Scottish higher education sector during the pilot scheme (or the first episode) of the post-study work route in Scotland. Thirdly, the comment questions the credibility of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) of Scotland, which is an independent body entrusted with monitoring, and advising on, the standards and quality in Scottish higher education by undertaking Enhancement-led Institutional Reviews (ELIR) of universities and other higher education institutions in Scotland to safeguard the interests of students, taxpayers and other external stakeholders. If the claims regarding the authenticity of the ELIR and the credibility of the QAA were correct, the respondent would not have found a reason to vent his or her views, which are a testament to the fact that the ELIR must not have adequately met its objectives (to review and report on how institutions in Scotland maintain the academic standards of their awards and enhance the quality of the students’ learning experience), not once but perhaps time and again. In other words, had the ELIR and the QAA performed the way they should have, the respondent (in the research) would not have commented like that.
There are three biases apparent in the report. The first bias is in Annex B, from page 47 to page 49 of the report of the PSWWG; there are another 15 comments, both for and against the reintroduction of the post-study work route in Scotland. There is a clear difference between those comments and the one under discussion. That is, they did not mention any experience of interacting with overseas (or foreign) students and none of them refuted the assertion made in the comment quoted above to balance the conclusion of the report. The second bias in the report is that no one from the Scottish government tried to investigate whether the comment, which is a full charge sheet on the past performance of the Scottish higher education sector and questioned whether the authenticity of the ELIR and the credibility of the QAA, was correct in essence. The third bias is that in the recommendations’ section of the report, there is no recommendation that calls for the investigation of the matter or addressing the issues raised in the comment, before the implementation of the report.
Unfortunately, without refuting the charges, the writers of the report went ahead and recommended that the post-study work route should be reintroduced in Scotland and, overlooking the solution given in the comment under discussion, they suggested that the whole process be reengineered. Understandably, it was because of the premeditated, overwhelming desire on the part of those conducting research to find a way to reintroduce the post-study work route in Scotland, so that its universities could find an easy stream of money for survival. The main point lamented in the report is that Scotland is losing international students and their money, whereas other countries, such as the US, Australia and Canada, are gaining at the expense of Scotland. Pertaining to the higher education sector, the lapse in the performance of the Scottish government is apparent. That is, even after making the report public in March this year, the Scottish government has not held any enquiry to look into the charges or allegations made through the comment under discussion. This is tantamount to putting the future of overseas students at stake.

The writer is a freelance columnist and can be reached at qaisarrashid@yahoo.com